This Is My 1,600th Post

Very few things in my life have reached 1,600. I mean, my credit card balance was at $1,600. But other than that, I'm not quite sure where that number could have ever applied to me. Then again, I never was quite good at math or numbers. That doesn't really explain the fact that I've someway, somehow published one thousand six hundred blog posts in the past six years. That is...a lot of writing. And photos. And effort. And memories. And just a lot.

Truthfully, 1,600 isn't really that important of a number. A special number was 1,000. Maybe 1,500 would've been a better number to take note of. And when I eventually hit 2,000 down the line, if I'm still sharing my innermost thoughts and poorly put together outfits on the internet, I'll probably make note of that too.

But today, today is my 1,600th post and I haven't prepared a single thing to talk about! This is precisely why I've chosen to make note of this random blogging milestone. I have ideas for Friday and for next week and for potentially the week after that, but today, as my first official blog post in 2019 that isn't about last year, we're going to ramble.

I never really quite got the hang of blogging when I first started. Hell, there is a good chance that I still don't have the hang of it. But in my defense–and anyone else who has those inevitable doubts about what they're doing–there really is no right or wrong way to do it. You don't need a specific hosting platform, you don't need to use RewardStyle, you don't have to share exclusively fashion photos, you don't have to write nearly as much as I do. You have the freedom to do what you want with it.

Do you want to monetize your content? #GetThatMoneyGirl! Do you want to keep it chill and use it as your creative outlet with no monetary benefit? #FollowYourPassion! Combine the two! It all just come down to this: Do. What. You. Want.

That has very little relevance to me hitting 1,600 posts, but I guess in reality, it has a lot to do with it. How else would I have kept up the motivation to still be blogging six years later? In my professional life, I am admittedly motivated by money. But that's my career, separate from this blog and what I choose to post on social media. When it comes to this, Life According to Francesca (every time I see that name written out I cringe but such is life!), I didn't start it in hopes of making money. I was just a teenager in high school who knew she was creative but couldn't find her outlet. I couldn't draw or paint, I wasn't very good at music even if I loved it, I could write fiction but I wasn't great and it wasn't what I wanted to do, and I just felt stifled. I wasn't artistic enough to be creative but I also didn't feel smart enough to be into math and science.

So, I did what the girls I was watching on YouTube did: I started a blog. Summer of 2012 was the year of unintentionally tragic outfits, I'm sure, but also the start of this little nugget of a blog, no doubt with some horrendous name that I cannot even remember.

I've tried so many things on this blog to try to figure out what works. I suppose my worry about what's working comes down to two things that I often find conflicting: what my "audience" wants (I'm still just convinced only my mom and dad read this and maybe some of their friends–hi guys! Thanks for the support!) and then what I want. In theory, what I want should trump everything, but I'm also a people pleaser. Also, I mean, at some point I could just talk to myself about all of my innermost thoughts and not publish them to the internet so...I lost my train of thought and don't really know where I was going with this.

I'm assuming what I was trying to say is that if this was all just for myself, then I could just keep it to myself. But my mom pointed out that she noticed more people commented on stuff when I talked more in my posts about my life and the trivial bullshit that I'm dealing with presumably because it's trivial bullshit that we're all dealing with. Maybe my blog has turned into just one big ole #RelatableTweet. Even with my boyband nonsense, I know I have some fellow 1D and Jonas Brothers trash following me and I LOVE IT.

I've attempted fashion advice, beauty advice, college advice, book reviews, music reviews, outfit inspiration, too many trends to count to try to see what I could produce and what made me not feel like I was wasting my time writing it. It's only right that my 1,600th post be one huge, long ramble. 2018 was the year of the stream of consciousness for me and I'm thinking it's going to stick around.

Also, I would just like to mention that One Direction and its members have appeared 244 times on this blog over the past six years and I am sad to report that Jonas has only appeared 37 times. I cannot believe I've cheated on my OG fake husbands. I'm disappointed and feel like I'm ending this post on a low note.

Joe, Nick, and hell, even Kevin...if you're out there...please forgive me.